Not going to bother spoiler tagging this one as, yes, it was that short. ^^;; Let's discuss the team first. Then we'll discuss the match.

Baby's first VGC team: So apparently half of my favorites are VGC 2014 illegal. What the hell. But I knew I could probably count on an old classic of mine: the team I created from scratch for the Champion League tournament in November 2011. Based on Red's team from Pokémon GSC, the team includes Espeon, all three starters, Snorlax, and Pikachu. Well, I knew that Pikachu wasn't going to be coming along with me to VGCs. ^^; And I knew that several changes would need to be made to make this team VGC competent.

Blastoise used to have Rapid Spin | Toxic | Ice Beam | Scald. Now he has Rest in place of Rapid Spin. I considered deleting Scald but have left it in place for now because meh I don't think Blastoise would be on a serious VGC team of mine anyway. ^^; This is just for fun.

Venusaur used to have Sunny Day since he was the one who generated it for both himself and teammate Charizard in 2011. But now that Charizard is the one handling sun duties, Venusaur is freed up to carry Hidden Power: Ice.

Charizard is the big change. Everyone who was around in 2011 knows that I was an advocate for physical Charizard back in a place and time when no one would run it. His moves (Flare Blitz, Outrage, Earthquake, and Dragon Dance) are practically a carbon copy of what you'll find on many a Mega Charizard X these days. (Well, replace Outrage with Dragon Claw, but you get the picture. ) But since I knew I wanted Sunny Day on this team, I had to make the switch from physical Charizard to special Charizard. It's not as fun for me since I do love my unconventional physical Charizard, but it's a tried and true set. Heat Wave (because lol Doubles), Solarbeam, Air Slash (because lol surprises), and Protect (because LOL SURPRISES). The hope is to use Charizard to lure a lot of attacks that will buy time for others on the team to do what they need to do.

Espeon suffered no changes.

Snorlax used to have Curse | Return | Earthquake | Rest. Good ol' Curselax, another of my old-fashioned advocacies which members who participated in the 2011 tournament should remember. Problem is, standard Curselax isn't very good in Doubles. He's a sitting duck if he Rests without Sleep Talk, he can't afford to Curse up without a way to heal, and the only real option for Snorlax outside of Curse is something like Choice Band. I considered it, but since Doubles is a hostile environment for Choice Banded Explosion (oh the collateral damage ... @[email protected]), I decided to instead give this set a try: Curse | Return | Sleep Talk | Rest. That's right: no non-Normal moves. Because I too like to live on the wild side. ;D The hope here is that Snorlax draws fire, can muscle his way past non-Ghosts and non-bulky Steels, and will never, ever find himself the last man remaining against an Aegislash or a Gengar. We'll see. ^^;

Finally, Pikachu got the boot in favor of Aegislash. Fairly standard. I'm running Weakness Policy @ Swords Dance | King's Shield | Shadow Sneak | Iron Head. The team wants more physical muscle besides just Snorlax and Aegislash can offer it that. Weakness Policy is there to hopefully ensure that after only one Swords Dance I should be OHKOing things left and right. We'll see. :\

So with the team explained, let's get to the game.

Baby's first VGC battle: Not much to say. Opponent was either a beginner or else just got hosed by me. ^^; I led with Charizard and Espeon. Why? 1) Sun ASAP. 2) Reflect ASAP. That straightforward. He led with Venusaur and Medicham. I hoped he would Fake Out Espeon. (Sadly he didn't. Even though, as I note above, I've planned for Charizard to lure in attacks. ^^; ) But Heat Wave did more than enough damage. Man that thing (Heat Wave Mega Charizard Y) is broken. O_o Turn 2 sees Espeon Calm Minding, Charizard taking a Toxic from Venusaur, and then Charizard roasting everyone for the double OHKO. Out come Cloyster and Absol and the moment he decides not to Sucker Punch Espeon it's gg then and there. Espeon OHKOs Cloyster with Psychic, Charizard finishes off Absol with Heat Wave.

As you can see, it's not a serious team, but I'd like to see how far I can take it over the next day or two. We'll see.